Jason MacDonald won his second fight in the UFC against Chris Leben at UFC 66 and now several different sources are reporting that MacDonald’s next opponent will be against former Middleweight champion Rich Franklin at UFC 68.
This will be Franklin’s first fight back after losing his title to Anderson Silva at UFC 64, and will be a huge step up in competition for the Canadian Jason MacDonald.
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tom b: let him have this fight then put him in with nate diaz to settle that TUF beef they had going.
Ben Cartlidge: I don’t see who they match him up with, it’s up to Dana how far he gets. He’s never gonna set the world on fire...
Shawn Smith: I’m pretty surprised with this move. I figured maybe Dana would have him back if he could get on an impressive winning streak,...
JStein: I was one of the people hoping for redemption for Ruediger, and thought that the wins on his record recently might have given it to him....
StuDog: Rampage is a one-dimensional thug who doesn’t push himself to be well-rounded like today’s elite fighters do. Machida just... Ben Cartlidge: Thanks very much for taking the time to read, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Ben Cartlidge: I’m honored that you took the time to write such an eloquent response. I honestly think that a collegiate wrestling...
LaM: Excellent article. It was well written and thought provoking. Thank you sir StuDog: I sincerely hope GSP knocks this POS back to Edinboro. Though that would be kind of bad, since I like Edinboro. It’s not as nice as...
Angelina: I found this article extremely interesting as it’s a topic that I’ve considered for a while, myself. In my opinion the lack...
NOW THIS IS WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT … THIS FIGHT IS GONNA ROCK … ALTHOUGH I HOPE FRANKLIN WINS THIS ONE….
i want to see franklin rise to the top again but i would also like mcdonald to pull out another upset so it really doesnt matter who wins it will be a good fight
Although macdonald is no stepping stone the level of
rich franklin is probably gonna be too high for him already.
Ida rather seen franklin/swick but this is good too!!!!!
I have to say that I was not impressed by MacDonald’s performance at UFC66 at all. I’m starting to wonder how is it that guys like him have 2 fights and are already top contenders, while guys who have not lost any fights (ex. Swick) are cast aside. The UFC needs to start giving us more for our money and fill more fights into the PPVs, cause each one goes by and all of a sudden good fighters, who are PPV level fighters, get forgotten. It seems like they are trying to give all the Miletich boys easy fights to get back into contention. I for one think this is BS. I think from now on, us fans deserve quality fights.
Franklin vs. Swick would be a fight I might watch. Sorry, but after watching him get beat so friggin bad by Silva, I don’t know if I could ever pay to watch Franklin, Hughes, or Sylvia fight again. At least if the fights were close, but they were completely outclassed looked foolish and amateurish to be called “champions”.
I have to agree with you Amir. I was more impressed with MacDonald’s performance against Ed Herman than I was against Chris Leben. If he keeps putting his head down and just tries to grab people, he is going to get knocked out cold by any decent fighter.
the ufc needs try to agressively look for new talent pride has suck a diverse pick of fighters that if u really think about it it makes ufc look like one of these other smaller shows that exist in the states getting a couple new guys aint going to cut it they need a dozen at least to see better compition in the higher weight classes and they also need to stop bringing back has beens its starting to look like wwe with a bunch of old stars trying to mix it up with the young
Yea i agree with you on that rich, but you gotta look at it from probably where dana white is commin from, yes there is a different breed in the pride organization because of all there explosive fighters, if dana were to just start putting all of them fighters in at once and say they blow the competition away in the ufc then people might be like damn….where in the hell they been and what the hell has dana been doing. And you see how embarrassing the loses were to dana and chuck when they went to pride **** they got ran thru, yea chuck knocked out overeem in a spectacular way but then got dismantled by a rampage, so i think dana did a smart thing by getting these to fighters and bringing them in at the right time like now that they came off that mega fight that got them even on sports illustrated top 100 events of the past year. So now since they probably got a even huger fan base because of characters like tito and chuck the new fans will come in and see rampage and cro cop and be like this (ufc) is the sh**!!! So i say do a little at a time until ufc strangles the comp and is undisputed.
I agree with MacDonald….. Even he dosen’t think he should fight Franklin next. He wants to fight Kendall Grove, which makes sense considering that he has beaten 2 TUF fighters. He even called himself the TUF killer. Franklin vs Swick would be great. It does seem like the UFC could have higher profile fights for PPV but they tend to want to give certain fighters easy fights. Not that MacDonald is an easy fight but against Franklin….. Not so smart. This is why the UFC needs to stop letting certain fighters go after a couple of losses. (i.e. David Loiseau) Loiseau would have been a great fight for people like MacDonald and Leben who are trying to climb the ranks. Loiseau did take Franklin and Swick the distance. Maybe even Loiseau himself could have had anothertitle shot someday. Remember Evan Tanner anyone???? Yeah where did he go? Another great fighter in the Middleweight division.
Yea! I’d like to see Tanner & Swick, Rich & Silva on the same card!
There is no way that MacDonlad can compete with franklin. I hate Jason MacDonald. All he does is repete him self, im not a stepping stone, im not a stepping stone. I wish i could go in there and knock him out. Franklins going to whoop on MacDonald.
Jason McWho?
i know this is kinda comming out of no were but is anyone else wondering when sherk is going to defend the light weight strap. i remember dana white saying the light weights were going to be the next big thing but were is all the high profile light weight matches. they must be saving it for this season of TUF.
Some good points here…but Franklin has shown that he folds under pressure. If MacDonald can keep Rich from controlling his head (I’m surprised with the number of time leben had Jason’s head down, but still didn’t rock him), I think you will see another “upset”. MacDonald took some good shots from Leben’s left hand…still kept fighting through. And when it comes to Franklin…aside from keeping constant, hard pressure…what the hell is he good at. I see MacDonald submitting him in the 3rd round
agreed that Macdonald/Franklin is not the best fight…Macdonald is up and coming and needs another fight or 2 against reasonable opponents to prove himself – Kendall Grove is a good option. Franklin’s depth is a question mark after the schooling he took from Silva. Swick is good on his way to a possible great, but he hasn’t REALLY fought anybody of substance. He and Franklin would be a better match. as for the lightweight PUSH by Dana White, it has vanished…and been replaced by a Couture return (WHY?!) Rampage and CroCop. bye bye Sylvia. poor Brandon Vera. i think that kid has the stuff. bad timing. UFC is a jumblef#$k right now and had better start organizing itself…
amir and anyone who agrees; clearly newly found ufc fans. hughes an unconvincing champion? watch more than one fight then repost.
fair comment for sylvia though.
okay so it’s quite frustrating that fighters like franklin who have repeatedly defended their belts and introduced a need to raise the bar in being well-rounded get type casted with those who aren’t particularly good at anything. there’s a difference with not being particularly good at anything and being good at everything. he is different from exhibitionist fighters like hughes because he has trained primarily mma, rather than one aspect of martial arts initially, and then expanding to others like hughes with wrestling.
so the answer to the question, ‘what the hell is he good at?’ is everything.
are you serious? evan tanner cant hang in the middleweigh division, he has enough trouble in the welterweight division, hes a good fighter but hes just not a natural middleweight fighter. Its like sherk in welterweight, hes just out of his league.
I will never get over how people praise the **** out of fighters that hold championship belts but let that same fighter lose a fight and everyone thinks they can clown on him. If anyone here ever fought you would know that to lose is inevitable it is impossible to win every fight the part that matters is how a fighter deals with losing if anyone here thought that they could take it to any fighter they mentioned I dare you to call the promoter for the next amatuer fight you hear about and put yourself on the card theres a 99% chance of you getting all ****** up.
Is it just me or was Rich Franklins eyes shot and glazed over before the start of the Silva execution.
Overtrained,scared,what?
He looked really off somehow, however hats off to another excellent Brazillian fighter, the skilled fighter pool there is so deep that the cream of the crop fighters [ie:Silva] are going to be real good.
Something to do with fighting 30 minute rounds back home maybe.
I certainly rank Macdonald as an up and comer, and agree it is too soon for a Franklin match, but with the way Miletich campers have been dropping, it might be a good time.
Hey Mike,
It’s good that someone else finally acknowledges that Ace was not at his best even before the fight started. I bet the tides turn for II.
It’s almost unforgiveable…
If Travis is serious about this fight,with the lead time he had up to it,
why the hell is the credibility of this title match out the window before the introductions of the fighters…
It’s a basic requirement, you must make weight…he failed.
Macdonald does not belong in the UFC. He lacks serious skill. He’s got a sloppy defense, a disastrous offense, he’s too lanky for this sport and quite frankly, he’s very boring to watch. His take down decisions are horribly executed at the wrong time. His charisma is about equal to his fighting (lack of) skill. Just looking at the guy makes me want to vomit, and when he parades around like a peacock because he got a lucky win against an equally crappy fighter his displays of arrogance makes the audience shudder. He belongs in the amateur ring, or maybe at tournaments at the local high school.
i will agree with most of what you say, but i gotta say he gets the job done for the most part. the thing with MacDonald is that hes so awkward in every aspect and its a bit annoying, but like i said at least he gets the job done most of the time.